


Halloween Night

by Schattenschreiberin



Series: Modern AU (I swear I can be creative) [5]
Category: Brave (2012), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Almost Drowning, Fighting to protect your friends, Halloween
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:54:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25655476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schattenschreiberin/pseuds/Schattenschreiberin
Summary: For a lot of teens Halloween is a time for costume parties. For Merida it's a time of herding her little brothers through the streets. Fortunately, she isn't alone this year. Unfortunately, neither she nor the Overland-siblings think that it's a bad idea to take the shortcut through the park…
Series: Modern AU (I swear I can be creative) [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1827148
Kudos: 15





	Halloween Night

“So you build this thing five years ago?” Merida tapped the top end of Jacks’ shepherds’ crook against the fence to her right. She was carrying it for her friend after her brothers’ cornered the twins and talked them into giving them a piggy back ride.

The triplets wanted to get as much as they could out of this Halloween. Which included candy and bothering all three of their escorts. Emma didn’t really count since she was just another trick or treater and also Jacks’ excuse to dress up and go trick or treating. Not many adults handed out sweets to teenagers. Exceptions were made though if older siblings didn’t just drag their younger ones through the streets but also still participated for the sake of entertaining the kids. It wasn’t entirely clear why, but nobody complained.

The only one of the group who was not in costume was Jackson, although he did tell Harris he was going as the most horrifying thing on this earth. A Babysitter.

Emma was dressed as a Vampire Queen while Merida went with a classic Witch, including giant hat and a fake black cat on her shoulder. The triplets all dressed up as zombies, their facepaint all different shades of green so it was a little bit easier to tell them apart. Merida had laughed at Jacks’ ‘Jack Frost’ costume but quickly made clear that it was just perfect.

“Yeah. It took a lot of work but it turned out great” “You also looked ridiculous with it the first year” added Jackson, laughing at the memory of a twelve year old Jack with a staff that was way too tall in comparison to his own height.

“Hey! I was only planning for the future” Jack would’ve playfully punched his brothers’ arm but since he was still carrying Hubert that wasn’t really possible.

Hamish and Emma were walking a few feet in front of them, comparing the amount of candy they got after the redhead accused Emma to be to old and therefore not getting as much Candy as him. When they reached a junction, they stopped and waited for the rest of their group. Emma cocked her head and looked down the path they would take to get to Rapunzels’ and Hiccups’ house.

The two weren’t big fans of trick or treating but they had invited Merida, Emma, Jack and Jackson to stay the night and watch a few movies while the triplets would be picked up by their mom. After raiding the best houses in this part of the town it was already getting late and the teenagers decided to take a shortcut through the park. The next part of the shortcut was pretty much engulfed in darkness.

“Hm… Looks like they’re still having some problems with the lights around here” Merida pulled her phone out of her bag and turned it into a flashlight. It was a new moon night so there was not much light from above either as they walked down the gravel path. Eventually Hubert and Harris were put down to walk with their brother and Emma and Jack and Jackson pulled out their phones as well.

“Pretty spooky” Jackson let the light from his phone wander over the tangled branches over their heads.

“Yeah. It’s really cool” Merida agreed as they rounded a corner.

They were now walking along a small wall, separating them from the black water of a lake. There were signs with warnings about the depth of the water and how it was not allowed to litter, feed the ducks or swim in the lake. Jack frowned. If they really wanted to keep people from getting in, they should build a wall that at least reached his knee.

Merida made sure to walk between her brothers and the flimsy wall while they continued on. Till they were stopped.

“Are my eyes fooling me or is it DunBroch?”

They were almost past the lake and the lights were working again.

Leaning against the first lantern was another teen, maybe one or two years older than them. Red hair, a facial tattoo and an unevenly growing beard. His whole look and body language almost screamed ‘trouble’. So were the three other boys behind him.

Merida scoffed and stepped in front of her brothers “Don’t waste my time, Dagur. I have a movie and pizza waiting for me”

“You wound me, Princess” Dagur put a hand to his chest and tried to look hurt. The shiteating grin on his face didn’t help with that.

The twins stopped to Meridas’ left and right and while Jack leaned on his staff and just watched Dagur and his friends with mild curiosity in his blue eyes, Jackson cocked his head and raised an eyebrow at them “Hey Merida? Would you introduce us?”

“Gladly”, the redheaded girl crossed her arms “Emma, Jack, Jackson… meet the deranged moron. I don’t know who his new clowns are”

“Dagur the Deranged for you”, he straightened himself and shoved his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket before starting to walk towards them, his friends on his tail “And this is my gang. We’re the Berserkers. That shouldn’t be something new to you, Princess”

“Your kindergarten-crew is pretty forgettable” Merida grinned when she heard Jack laugh to her left and seeing out of the corner of her eye how Jackson was obviously very close to it.

“You’re calling yourself ‘Deranged’?”, Dagur glared at him but that didn’t stop the white-haired teen “I’m all about owning names that others use to tease you with but you seem to be the bully-type and not the being-bullied-type”

Jackson snickered “And ‘Berserkers’? How long did it take to come up with that?” He had seen so many bully-types through the years, but this guy was really funny.

“Shut up and show me respect!” Dagur was now standing only two feet away from them but even if he was taller than all of them neither the twins nor Merida felt intimidated by him.

“I’m sorry. We’re all out of respect for random hooligans. Try again later” the brunet was trying to sound like the automated message from an answering machine and it made Jack and Merida laugh even louder. Emma and the triplets giggled behind them.

The children laughing at him seemed to pass the line. “Alright. Enough nice foreplay. You’re getting mugged!”

That shut everyone up. Emmas’ eyes grew wide and she put an arm in front of the triplets almost subconsciously. The expression in pairs of blue and brown eyes changed from amusement to shock as the older teen pulled a knife from behind his back and the other Berserkers took a step forward to stand almost shoulder on shoulder, building a solid wall behind Dagur.

Merida was the first to speak again, more confused than actually scared “What?”

“Mugged. Do you not know what that means, bitch?”

“But why, all of a sudden?”

“Well…”, Dagur played with the knife in his hands, it looked like a survival knife soldiers would use “You see… After you got me expelled my dad isn’t very… generous when it comes to financial things. So I thought I’d better my income a bit”

“By mugging people on Halloween when the most valuable things people have on them are large amounts of candy?”

“Nobody leaves their house without a phone and wallet, smartass”, the redhead pointed his knife at Jackson and grinned “And you three, or four depending if the little bitch has one, are going to hand those over now”

For a few moments all that was heard was Jack grinding the end of his staff in the gravel. If looks could kill…

The brunet teen looked from the blade to Dagurs’ face and back. His eyes were brimming with anger and disgust, but his voice was worryingly calm “No”

All Berserkers looked at Jackson, surprise and irritation in their faces. They obviously didn’t expect that kind of reaction.

The redheaded teen gritted his teeth and waved the knife in front of the smaller boys’ face “Do you see this? This is not some schoolyard brawl. You think I’m a joke?!”

“Actually… yes. Yes, I do. You don’t have the guts to properly use that thing” Jacksons’ hand shot forward and caught Dagurs’ wrist “And yes. This isn’t a schoolyard brawl. And there’s no stupid moral code when protecting your friends and family”

“Moral co-“ Dagur was obviously wanting to make fun of that statement but he didn’t get a chance to. It would probably be relatively easy for him to get out of the brunets’ grip but before he could, something hit him hard in the upper back. Jackson letting himself fall backwards and pulling him towards the ground ultimately toppled the taller teen over. Dagur was already preparing himself to squash the other boy with his weight and show him how he would use that knife but before any of that could happen Jackson hit the floor, still holding the berserkers’ wrist and a devious grin on his face. One hand on his shoulder and a strong kick in his stomach sent Dagur flying over the wall into the water with a loud splashing sound.

It was silent for about a second before the rest of the Berserkers stormed forward.

Jack quickly ducked and swung his staff at their legs, making two stumble and one fall and drop the baseball bat he was holding. Merida was quick to lunge for the dropped weapon and hit it against the next boys’ arm, making him scream in pain and drop the knife he was holding. The last one paused looking between his two fallen friends to Jack and Merida. And then he took off. The others were fast to follow, cursing and leaving their leader behind.

“Next time one of you’ll get a broken arm again, ya cowards!” the redhead screamed before throwing the dropped weapons after them.

Emma and the triplets cheered, and Jack and Merida gave each other a high five.

“Uh… Merida?” “What?” “Dagur can swim… right?” Jackson was kneeling on the ground and peered into the black water. The lantern was too far away to illuminate this part of the lake so he couldn’t see anything. And the longer he didn’t see anything the more nervous he got. He didn’t mean to seriously hurt the guy. Especially not drown him! If there was something that Jackson didn’t wish on anybody it was- “I sure can!”

Dagur shot up out of the water, gripped the edge of the wall with one hand and got a hold of the brunets’ shirt with the other. Emma screamed and tried to throw herself at Jackson to keep him in place but Dagur was quick to hurl the younger teen over his head, so Jacksons’ back hit the water a few feet away from the wall, before going under again himself. “Jackson!” panicked Emma leaned over the wall and tried to see something, anything, but there was nothing. Someone pulled her back with so much force that she fell backwards onto the gravel. A flash of white out of the corner of her eye and another splash.

“Shit!” Merida had still enough thought to not jump in too, she wouldn’t be able to swim that well in this kind of dress and fumbled for her phone to try and see where the boys were. Harris and Hubert were clinging to her skirt while Hamish was kneeling at Emmas’ side. Then someone broke through the surface. It was way farther away than where Jackson had landed, and the area was so dark that they couldn’t even make out who it was. Water was splashing, someone gasped for air before another person resurfaced, yelling and seemingly grabbing at the other.

“He’s trying to drown them!” Emma hurried to get on her feet but by the time she was at the wall and Merida had finally her phone out and the light pointed to where the boys had been there was nobody to see. They were too far away.

“Merida!” “Emma!”

They both whirled around when they heard Hiccup and Rapunzel. And loud barking.

“They’re in the lake!”, Merida yelled after a second of shock “Let Toothless run!”

It wasn’t even five seconds after that when a large black mass ran around the corner towards them, leash fluttering behind like a scarf. When Hiccup and Rapunzel came in sight the dog had already leapt over the wall and made his way over to where he was needed. The two teens were out of breath and Rapunzel fell to her knees when they finally reached their friends.

“Wh- what is going on?”

“We saw Berserkers running and then we heard you scream”

There was no time to explain. There was more ruckus out on the water.

This time they could clearly hear Dagur cursing. Toothless was barking and snarling and a pained scream followed soon after. In the light of Meridas’ phone they could see Dagur swimming away from the giant dog. They could also see Jack not far away from Toothless, struggling to keep himself and his brother over water.

Hiccup quickly took of his jacket and shoes “Merida, keep the light on. Rapunzel, call emergency” The girls just nodded and did as they were told while Hiccup jumped into the lake to help his friends.

Toothless had already given up on chasing Dagur in favor of helping the twins and with Hiccups’ help they finally moved back towards dry land and their friends. Merida passed her phone to Emma so she could reach down and help Rapunzel to pull Jackson on land. He wasn’t unconscious, like Merida had feared, just… completely out of it. As soon as he was out of the water he latched on the nearest person, which happened to be Rapunzel, and tightly held on to her, shaking and sobbing. She didn’t hesitate to hug him and slowly rub his back to calm him down. Emma was instantly at her side, crying and hugging her brother. Merida hurried to help Jack and Hiccup out as well as pulling Toothless out of the water.

They could hear sirens approaching.

“Where is he?!” “We didn’t see…”, Merida felt a similar amount of fury like she saw in Jacks’ eyes boiling in her own guts “But that asshole can’t hide from us”

“Doesn’t matter”, Hiccup looked at them sternly “You’re not going to run after him now”

“He tried to kill my brother! I’m not-!“ “Jack, listen to me”, Hiccup held his friends’ shoulders “I know. But Dagur is insane and he’s gone. You two are just going to get into trouble and you’re needed here” Jack looked over to his siblings. Jackson still had his arms wrapped around Rapunzel while Emma was hugging him, her face buried in his drenched jacket. Now that he wasn’t yelling, he could hear Rapunzel humming a peaceful melody.

Toothless started barking as two men and three women came running towards them. Police and paramedics.

“Dagur is not going to get away with this…” Jack and Merida looked up and saw something in their friends’ green eyes that made them both smile.

Dagur should pray for the police to find him first.

**Author's Note:**

> This series is mostly for writing practice... I tried to write a fight. 
> 
> I also thought about who would actually have a near death experience with drowning and it wouldn't be Jack Frost. He didn't exist during the drowning.  
> No. That's not the reason why I did this.


End file.
